Starting cloth w/ #2?

Woodwife

Hi Ladies! I'm jumping over here from Preg>35 to ask your opinion. We'll be welcoming our second child in July and are thinking about cding this time around. My toddler just turned two and is thinking about potty training but of course he might regress when the second arrives - who knows! So we might have one is diapers - or two. My gfs have offered to throw me a cd shower, awesome idea, if we want to go that way so we would have help building a stash, making it a bit more affordable for us. 

Anyway, just wanted to hear from cd-ers who have a toddler and a NB. Do I need a bigger stash or should I focus on brands that go from cradle to potty age? Is learning how to cd a lot to take on when learning how to have two kids or should I not worry about it? Would love any opinions or experiences you might have to share. TIA! 

 

Dr.Loretta

I do not have a toddler and a nb, but a few things to keep in mind:

Most OS diapers do not fit newborns. They don't start fitting well until about 10-12 lbs. You may want a small nb stash of prefolds and fitteds to get through the first few weeks/months. DD didn't fit into OS until she was around 13 weeks.

As a brand new parent of a nb I didn't think CDing was nearly as hard as I thought it would be, so I would imagine throwing CD into your mix isn't going to be impossible. You can always ease into CDing or do it PT if you feel overwhelmed.

GL!

StephanieDM

I only have one kiddo for now but I plan on CDing with our second baby too. We love our CDs! I just wanted to say that CDing is a LOT easier than you would ever think when its actually in action. It can seem a bit overwhelming to do the research and get your stash together, but once you start doing it - its so easy! I promise. You'll wonder why you didn't switch earlier. 

And if you do have a CD shower, I would definitely research and make a registry (several online sites have that feature), because not everyone knows what modern CDs are like and you'd hate to end up with a bunch of crappy Gerber prefolds (not even worth having for burp rags).  

 

BubbleToes

I did not cd my first but am with my 2nd.  When my DS was born my DD was 22 months and was not potty trained.  I attempted to put a CD on her and she freaked out so I decided that we were going to keep her in disposables since she was beginning to PT herself (FWIW, she did not regress at all) and just use the cloth on the baby.

It's nowhere nearly as difficult as I was anticipating.  We waited until he was done with the pooping every 20 minutes stage (actually, it was more around 3 months or so) before we put him in cloth the first time and haven't looked back.  If we have a 3rd I'll start much sooner now that I'm not as intimidated.

My guy was a chunk so I didn't have any problems with him fitting into OS diapers - that's mostly what I stocked up on.  I will say that my stash is very different now than when I first started.  I used to love BumGenius AIO/pockets and Fuzzibunz but now find that my stash is mostly GroVia AI2, Applecheeks, BG Elemental and Thirsties Due Diapers.  A CD shower sounds awesome but I'd be a little worried about ending up with a ton of diapers that don't end up working for your baby (though they do have great resale so you could always put that toward a new stash).

I've found it to be a lot of fun and I like having something "special" we do with #2 since it seems like he gets the shaft in lots of other ways.

MrsGalligan

We part-time CD with DD #1 who was 22 motnhs when DS was born.  We used disposables on DS until he fit into one-size diapers.  We didn't want to mess with having two stashes and we knew we wanted to go with one-size diapers so that's what we're investing in. 

I will say this.  We started cding ds as soon as we could (10-11 weeks old) and I never hesitate when its time for a diaper change...I always grab a cd.  However with dd I always hesitate.  I imagine that mommies that cd since birth through toddlerhood transition thier cloth diapering methods to accomodate pee and poop at different stages in a baby's life...but toddler pee and poop is just gross!!!  And though poop is poop is poop...I always hesitate as to whether or not I want to deal with it or just wrap it up and throw it away! 

Woodwife

Many thanks ladies - for the great advice and stories! I think we're going to do it.

There's a local woman who does the cd showers and she sells only products she uses on her kids and they're Wahmies, Fuzzibuns...and something else. So we would be sure to avoid the apparently dreaded Gerber prefolds.

Thanks again - I feel encouraged!